For a long time, Eden Perkins believed she wouldn't find another human being she would willingly die for - she didn't want to. The past few months of her life, ever since the day the dead had started coming back to life - and maybe even before that...
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╔───── ╝☠╚─────╗ xxii. | ONE LIFE FOR ANOTHER. ╚───── ╗☠╔─────╝
THEY DIDN'T MAKE IT VERY FAR. In their current states – one with broken bones, the other with a bullet in the shoulder –, Eden and Nick barely made it out of the herd with the rest of the luck they somehow had on their side. Shortly after they made it out, Nick started getting slower and Eden felt like she couldn't carry the part of his weight any longer as she had his arm wrapped around her shoulders, supporting his stance.
"Look," Nick was still out of breath, speaking in between huffs, "you should go. Try to find the others."
Eden looked at him, completely confused, "What?"
"You'll be quicker without me. I'll just slow you down," he elaborated. "Go on without me. I'll be fine."
At that, the younger woman only furrowed her brows. She couldn't even think of a response that wasn't "Are you stupid?" and she felt like he could read that question off of her face so she didn't feel the need to actually voice it. "Don't talk too much," she instructed firmly, trying to hold it together. She was feeling like absolute crap herself but needed to stay focused. "You need to save your energy. There's also just shit coming out of your mouth sometimes, so..." She decided it was best to leave that sentence unfinished and shot a weak grin Nick's way.
Although it was only for a second, she noticed the corners of his lips twitch upwards.
Eventually, Nick's legs gave out on him. After parking the young man by a tree and having a quick look around, Eden found a car inside which they could hide out the situation and give Nick some rest. With every muscle of hers aching, she managed to pull him into the car.
Inside, Eden took a quick look around. While she had one hand on her machete, she put the other on the steering wheel. She couldn't remember the last time she sat inside a vehicle since the beginning of the apocalypse. Although most of them were still functioning, gas was extremely hard to come by. Eden also never traveled far enough so she never had to rely on a vehicle again.
Nick seemed to have similar thoughts. "God, last time I sat inside a car was inside Pete's old truck," he remembered, smiling weakly. Eden recognized the pain behind that smile. "He wanted to get some spices, I think. Old man got a buck again and, Jesus, was he obsessed with cooking everything perfectly. We wanted to have dinner at my mom's but, uh... that never happened. Shit hit the fan the next day."
Eden knew exactly what he meant by that but wanted to change the topic as she didn't want the mood to drop even further. For just a minute, she wanted to have a lighthearted conversation. "You ever got your license?"
